Sometimes one is tempted to start and end a review in one sentence and be
done with it. It would be far more satisfying to the writer, but much less helpful
to the reader hoping to glean insight into an album and artist. This is one of
those cases, but this reviewer shall steadfastly soldier on and deliver the verbiage.

"Mind Police" is an album that can be experienced in under a half
hour, and that's by design. Dave Dub & The Sutter Cain Gang did not record
a single song here longer than three minutes and nine seconds, and half of
them are actually 2:15 or less. The reason for these brief adrenaline bursts of
music is simple - rapper Dub and his production team of JtheSarge and Piet
Damolen envisioned this album as "a punk rock hip-hop project." One can't
fault them for truth in advertising - that's exactly what "Mind Police" is.
If you ever listened to a seminal punk album (that doesn't mean punk pop
crossover like Green Day or No Doubt) it's exactly like this release - and not
too far from what the early/obscure Beastie Boys songs sound like either.

Dub is the product of a California scene that encourages experimentation,
both musically and pharmaceutically, and by his own admission he's done
plenty of both since the 1990's. If you have Peanut Butter Wolf's "My
Vinyl Weighs a Ton" you may know of him, but that was over a decade ago.
He dropped so far off the radar he couldn't even be found with sonar. Like
many troubled musicians, his once recreational excesses became full-time
pursuits, and artistic output became secondary to staying comfortably numb.
Confident he has now dealt with his demons and made peace with them,
he has enlisted the help of JtheSarge, Myka 9 and their M9 Entertainment
label to put his musical vision back on the map. Not surprisingly both J and
9 make cameos on "Mind Police" on the song "I Need It," one of the
album's most intense (and also a bit incomprehensible) tracks.

As the old saying goes though let's get down to brass tacks, and they are
particularly sharp and pointy here. I respect Dave Dub's commitment to
make punk rock hip-hop his own way, and his label's commitment to
supporting and producing it that way. Occasionally this results in songs
that remind me a little bit of Ice-T's band Bodycount, most notably on
the title track of "Mind Police" and the Cage-like "No Name." Having
respect for an artist doesn't always mean enjoying their musical output
though - see Camu Tao's "King
of Hearts" for example. To be honest there's a very VERY
narrow subset of today's rap audience that's going to appreciate songs
like "Hitler's Nightmare" and "Robo Christ." If you like incredibly fast
punk rock bass guitar and drums and someone with a relatively monotone
vocal chord rapping just as fast over them "Mind Police" is your cup of
tea. This writer finds the taste a little too acrid and bitter to enjoy the drink.
There's a place for punk rock hip-hop in this world, and if you like early
1980's Beastie Boys, you're in that place. 30 minutes of it is
more than enough for me.